Giving life to others

Jeanne Morrow spent a few minutes in a lounge chair recently, giving blood. She has been in that position many times before because she has racked up her eighth gallon of donated blood.

Kay Hively

Jeanne Morrow spent a few minutes in a lounge chair recently, giving blood. She has been in that position many times before because she has racked up her eighth gallon of donated blood.

Asked why she gives blood, Jeanne says she likes the idea that her pint of blood could possibly save three lives. She started giving blood several years ago but when she had a spell of sickness, she quit giving. Then about 10 or 12 years ago, she started giving again. And says she will give as long as she can.

Jeanne calls herself a “stay-at-home” mom, even though she was trained as a nurse. She and her husband, Dr. Stephen Morrow, had four boys that she could stay at home with. Now they have eight grandchildren, which she calls her “main hobby.”

But enjoying grandchildren is just part of her routine. She is very active in the local YMCA.

“I do whatever is going on there to stay in shape,” she said.

She also volunteers at her church, St. Canera, in Neosho.Jeanne was born in Kansas City, where she married her husband. But when he finished dental school, they moved to Neosho to open a practice. They came to Neosho because her in-laws had lived here in World War II. Her father-in-law was in the Army and stationed at Camp Crowder.

“They didn’t live on the base, but lived in Neosho where they made a lot of civilian friends,” Jeanne said. “After the war and they moved back to Chicago, they continued to visit with the friends they met when they lived here. My husband always liked the area, so we came down when he finished school.”

As she visited with this reporter, a nurse was prepping her arm and inserting a needle to withdraw that pint of blood that would be her 64th pint.

“For the little bit of pain you might get in giving blood, it is worth it to save lives,” Jeanne said.The nurse who was ministering to her said, “When you consider what the person who gets that blood is going through, it’s nothing.”

So, for all of her 64 pints of blood that have no doubt saved many lives over the years, Jeanne Morrow is this week’s good neighbor.